At times in Christian thought, the priorities of pure doctrine and passionate mission have been perceived as opposites on a spectrum where emphasis on one results in neglect of the other, but without one, the other is deficient and doomed to crumble. Mission without doctrine is like a body without a skeleton, but apart from mission, doctrine is like dry bones in a museum. A Lutheran Reformission maintains a dual emphasis, resulting in doctrinal missions as well as missional doctrine.

Monday, July 20, 2015

For this week's newspapers, I answered a question about the different lengths and translations of the Lord's Prayer in English-speaking churches:

Q: Why do some churches say the
Lord’s Prayer with the line, “Forgive us our debts” while others use “Forgive
us our trespasses,” and why do some stop with “deliver us from evil” while
others have an additional line afterward?

While the Lord’s Prayer is considered
the universal prayer among Christians because it was given by our Lord Himself,
the differences noted in the question are matters of text and translation.

The account of the giving of the Lord’s
Prayer is told twice in the Bible—once by Matthew, and once by Luke. Many ancient manuscripts of Matthew’s account
include the line “for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever
and ever. Amen” at the end of the
prayer. The ancient manuscripts of Luke,
in comparison, do not typically show this line.
In fact, many of the manuscripts of Luke are also missing the line, “but
deliver us from evil.”

These differences between Matthew and
Luke’s recording of the Lord’s Prayer account for the diversity of length in
the prayer. The most likely explanation
is that the line, “deliver us from evil” is original to the prayer, but that
those who copied Luke’s Gospel accidentally omitted it on a few occasions.

The longer ending of Matthew’s prayer
probably arises because as it was used in the liturgies of the early church of
the first century, similar to the way that “Glory be to the Father, and to the
Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall
be. Amen.” is typically added to the end of Psalms among
Christians.

Since Matthew’s Gospel was intended
as a catechism for instructing people who had come to Christianity from
Judaism, he would likely have included the prayer in the form it was said in
the liturgy. Some liturgies of the time
even included an even longer ending “…and the glory, of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit for ever.
Amen.” And on rare occasions, an
ancient copy of Matthew is even found with this very long ending included in
the prayer.

So, when churches use a longer or
shorter version of the Lord’s Prayer, it is primarily just the difference
between the version of the prayer recorded in Matthew and the version recorded
in Luke—and both are Biblical.

The difference between “forgive us
our debts” and “forgive us our trespasses” is one of translation in addition to
synonyms used for sin by Matthew and Luke.
The Matthew version uses a Greek word very similar to the English word “debt,”
while the Luke version uses the word that is the typical word for “sins” in the
New Testament. Some more modern attempts
at translating the Lord’s Prayer have even attempted to use the translation “forgive
us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us,” but they have not been
widely accepted.

When the word “debts” is used in the
Lord’s Prayer, it is because that particular translation is based on the King
James tradition of translating the Gospel of Matthew. The translation of “trespasses” has its roots
in the Tyndale Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, which pre-date the King
James Bible by several decades, so it is actually the older translation into
English, although it may seem new to some who grew up hearing the petition with
the word “debts.”

Because of its use in the Book of
Common Prayer for Anglican worship, “trespasses” became the default translation
of all the natively-English traditions of Christianity. For Lutherans (who spoke German upon arriving
in America) and Catholics (who conducted the Mass in Latin until recent years),
they also picked up the translation “trespasses” upon beginning to worship in
English, making it the majority version of the prayer in the present day.

Regardless of the translation,
though, the meaning of the petition is the same. When we sin, we trespass against the boundary
of God’s law, and sins committed by humans create a debt that we owe both to
God and the neighbors we sin against, which can only be paid back by Jesus
crucified death. Each of the words
emphasizes a different nuance of this truth, but all point to the same problem
and the same Savior who is its remedy.

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

For this week's newspapers, I answered a reader question about displaying flags in church:

Q: Why is the American flag often
displayed in the sanctuary of churches?
Is it appropriate to have a symbol of the nation in the midst of the
worship of God, or does it violate the separation of church and state?

In spite of the fact that flags have
been present for as long as most presently-living individuals can remember, the
installation of flags in church sanctuaries is actually a relatively recent and
primarily American development.

The earliest Christians would
certainly not have had national symbols among them when they gathered, because
they were considered criminals by the Roman Empire for refusing to worship
Caesar as god, and throughout Medieval Europe, flags and other national symbols
were typically considered something for the ruling classes, and not displayed
among the common people or in their churches.

When the American Revolution began,
patriotic sentiments rose among citizens, churches with a more uniquely
American ethos began to see the flag displayed outside of churches, sometimes
draped from the pulpit for certain occasions and carried in Sunday School or
Vacation Bible School processions. This
grew in frequency during the Civil War, but was still not common among more
internationally oriented churches, such as Lutherans, Orthodox, and Roman
Catholics.

The two World Wars of the 20th
century, and the racial and ethnic biases that accompanied them, are largely
responsible for the wider acceptance of flag display inside of church
buildings, even moving them from the entryways or fellowship halls right up
into the front of the church itself. Today,
there is no Canon Law regarding flag display, and it is left to the Diocese or
Congregation to decide among Roman Catholics.
Flag display is more disputed among the Orthodox, who do not typically
have as close a relationship with governments as the Roman Church.

For Lutherans, who were some of the
last holdouts against flag display, and other people who were ethnically
German, World War 1 was the advent of flag display in their churches as a way
of refuting accusations that they were sympathizers with the Kaiser in Germany
because they still conducted services in German.
In World War 2, flag display became nearly universal in order to avoid
similar accusations, and German worship also declined rapidly at this time in
favor of English.

The final volley which cemented flag
display in churches was the Flag Day proclamation in 1954, in which President
Eisenhower signed the act adding the words “under god” to the Pledge of
Allegiance. Coupled with the patriotism
which accompanied the Cold War, this convinced most of the remaining holdouts
to end their opposition to flag display in churches, and the Russian Orthodox
also began adopting flag display at this time because of accusations of Soviet
sympathies for conducting services in Russian.

Today, support for flag display in
churches is common, but not as common as it was in the Cold War era. One concern raised about the display of flags
in churches is that it gives the appearance that the nation or its government
are being worshipped or that they have a place equal to or nearly-equal to
God. Others raise the objection that the
Church is an international body which is composed of all nations, and therefore
the appearance of loyalty to a particular nation is inappropriate.

Others are uneasy with the
possibility of giving the appearance that the church endorses the actions of
the nation. This fear arose in the past
during wars which might have been considered unjust. Similar concerns are rising again today when
the laws of the nation are becoming more at odds with the teachings of the
Church, and the likelihood that the government will become openly hostile to
certain churches and their members is rising.

On the other hand, some point to the
fact that obedience to lawful authority is a virtue promoted in the Fourth
Commandment and that the New Testament encourages believers to submit to
governing authorities, assuming it obvious that obedience to God outweighs
loyalty to the nation.

Today, with a population of pastors
and members who are farther removed from the two World Wars and the Cold War,
we may very well see more careful examination of the practice of displaying the
national flag in churches, but the ultimate conclusion and how that will impact
continued display of the flag remains to be seen.

Lutheranism is more than a cultural identity or a denominational label. In fact, this cultural and institutional baggage may be the primary obstacle in Lutheranism’s path.

To be a Lutheran is not dependent on a code of behavior or a set of common customs. Instead, to be a Lutheran is to receive Jesus in His Word, Body, and Blood for the forgiveness of sins in the Divine Service; and to be bearers of this pure Truth to a broken world corrupted with sin, death, and every lie of the devil and man’s own sinful heart.

While the false and misleading ideas of human religious invention are appealing to sin-blinded minds, they fail when exposed to the realities of life. It is tragic when souls are led to confusion and despair because of the false religious ideas with which they are surrounded. The Biblical doctrine taught by the Apostles and restored at the Reformation holds answers which are relevant regardless of time or place and offers assurance of forgiven sins and eternal life who all who believe its message.

I am a husband, a father, the pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church (LCMS) in Burt, IA, and track chaplain at Algona Raceway.